“Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.”
Sam Brown (1943) American diplomat
The Washington Post (26 January 1977)
Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 30
“Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.”
Sam Brown (1943) American diplomat
The Washington Post (26 January 1977)
Jean de La Bruyère book Les Caractères
27
Les Caractères (1688), De la société et de la conversation
Context: To speak and to offend is with some people but one and the same thing; they are biting and bitter; their words are steeped in gall and wormwood; sneers as well as insolent and insulting words flow from their lips. It had been well for them had they been born mute or stupid; the little vivacity and intelligence they have prejudices them more than dullness does others; they are not always satisfied with giving sharp answers, they often attack arrogantly those who are present, and damage the reputation of those who are absent; they butt all round like rams — for rams, of course, must use their horns. We therefore do not expect, by our sketch of them, to change such coarse, restless, and stubborn individuals. The best thing a man can do is to take to his heels as soon as he perceives them, without even turning round to look behind him.
“I try very hard to be annoying. Don’t insult my ability to annoy.”
Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero
Source: The Lost Hero
“I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended.”
Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker
2010s, Audience Q&A following interview panel at Aalto University Center, 2012
“Charm is the ability to make someone else think that both of you are pretty wonderful.”
Kathleen Winsor (1919–2003) American author
James Burke (science historian) (1936) British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer
Connections (1979), 1 - The Trigger Effect
Context: You see how increasingly the only way we in the advanced industrial nations, with our bewildering technology network, can survive, is by selling bewilderment and dependence on technology to the rest of the world. Or is it not bewilderment and dependence, but a healthier wealthier better way of living than the old way? And, yet, whether or not you dress up technology to look local, the technology network is the same. And as it spreads, will it spread the ability to use machines, as we do, without understanding them?
Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer
Vol. I; VI
Lacon (1820)
George Will (1941) American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author
Column, May 7, 2014, "Thin skins and legislative prayer" http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-thin-skins-and-prayer-in-supreme-court-case/2014/05/07/a5049a64-d54c-11e3-8a78-8fe50322a72c_story.html at washingtonpost.com. <br class="br">2010s